Your garage door is an asset to your house that can often be overlooked when it comes to a little TLC, but remember your garage door is used at least twice per day on average, which means showing it a little love by doing some preventative maintenance can extend the lifetime of your garage door.
Replace Weather Seals
Garage door weather stripping, also known as door seal, fills the gap around the edge of the garage door. The door seal also limits air flow into the garage and helps keep dust and debris from entering. Amega Garage Doors stocks garage door weather seal in a variety of colors that you may either purchase to install yourself or have one of our technicians install it for you, perhaps in conjunction with a tune-up of your garage door and opener.
Clean the Garage Door Track
Regular attention to your garage door track and rollers keep your garage door operating smoothly. You can clean the inside of your garage door tracks with a small object such as a sponge or even a toothbrush. Apply a cleaner such as WD-40 onto the tracks, and then use a clean rag to remove cleaner and any other debris. Make sure that you don’t store objects near the tracks that could interfere with your garage door’s operation.
Lubricate Functioning Parts
Your garage door rollers, hinges, and springs will benefit from being lubricated at least twice a year with a light oil such as Fehr Door & Operator Multi-Purpose Spray Lube. DO NOT use WD-40 for this. Fehr Door & Operator Spray Lube is available for sale at our office. Mention this blog for a discount of $2 off a can of spray lube when purchased at our office. Other door & operator spray lubes can be purchased at home improvement stores.
Hinges: Spray the hinges of your garage door with lubricant at their pivot points. Just like a regular door in your home, over time the hinges can wear down, creating a creaking noise. With proper maintenance, your garage door hinges will be quiet and work more efficiently.
Springs: Lubricate your garage door springs, whether they are extension or torsion springs, to address problems due to normal wear and tear from the repeated up and down motion of your garage door and to extend the life of your springs.
Rollers: For a garage door that runs quietly and smoothly, be sure to lubricate your rollers.
Clean Garage Door Safety Eyes (Photos Eyes)
Garage door photo eyes must be kept clean and free of obstructions in order to operate properly. If you are having problems with your garage door operating properly, dirty or misaligned photo eyes may be your problem.
The LEDs on both the sending and receiving sensors will glow steadily when the wiring connections and alignment are correct. The amber LED on the sending sensor will glow regardless of alignment or obstruction. If the green LED on the receiving sensor is off, dim, or flickering (and the invisible light beam path is not obstructed), alignment is required.
Note: On the older safety sensors both LED lights are green. The receiving sensor is the sensor that the green light goes out when you pass your hand in front of the sensor. The sending sensor stays solid.
- Remove the receiving sensor (green LED) from bracket. You can do so by taking off the wing nut.
- Point the sensor away from the sending sensor, so that the LED light is completely off.
- Once the LED light is off, wait 10 seconds.
- Slowly rotate sensor back, aligning sensor with sending sensor, until it lights up green again. When you have a strong green light, put it back into the bracket and put the wing nut back on.
Note: If you are unable to get the door closed and the safety sensors are the issue, the garage door can be closed by pressing and holding the door control push bar until down travel is completed.
Des Moines Garage Door Tune-ups
Amega Garage Door offers affordable garage door tune-ups to residents of the Des Moines metro and surrounding areas. If your garage door is giving you trouble, don’t be afraid to reach out to our expert technicians at Amega for assistance.